sacred contents of those Scriptures. It was still more pleasing to contemplate the fact, that many a half-naked child, as he or she sat on the stump of a tree, or on a stone by the cabin-door, would read and repeat the lessons of truth in the hearing of their parents, previous to their repeating them to their Teachers at the schools. It should be remembered also with gratitude, that in the day-schools 37,000 children had been committing to memory every quarter four chapters of the word of God, or four pages of the preliminary books; so that each child was learning at least sixteen chapters year by year; and thus furnished with the means of going forth into the world, fraught with the riches and power of the Gospel of Christ. It was thought by some that it would be regarded as a hardship that the Bible alone was to be found in the schools; but was it really felt as a hard. ship? How came it to pass then that in Ireland so many were found coming cheerfully forward to support the cause? He felt almost ashamed of the Society and of that Meeting, when he considered what had been done in Ireland. Of the £9,000 which had been contributed, £3,000 came from Ireland, amidst all its poverty and privation! And that sum was given that children might read the word of God. And it must not be forgotten that the sum of £3,246 had been accompanied with nearly £3,000 more, which the Nobility and Gentry of Ireland had contributed, to eke out what other charitable institutions of the country had not been able fully to accomplish. So that Ireland herself had done as much as England and Scotland put together, with all their boasted liberality! What he had pressed thus on their attention were important facts; they were not theories or conjectures, but the result of the observation and experience of twenty-five years. And would they stop in their career? Gospel to China, and to Hindostan : They sent the would they not send it to Ireland? He was sure they would, and by means of that institution. So long as children were to be found, so long as parents were anxious for their instruction, so long as funds were furnished to the Society, so long as God was evidently crowning their exertions with success; so long ought they to exert themselves for Ireland, till every mountain-fastness, till every poor man's cabin, was blessed with the word of God. something in Roman Catholicism which He saw the progress of the JOHN HARDY, Esq., M. P., said, Why were they desired to thank God for the increased number of Roman Catholics in those schools, unless to im 1 Paul;" but it would be going a little too far, to reward some agitating Diotrephes, who wished to have the pre-eminence." He rejoiced to find an institution like that was supported by such an audience; and that, at all events, there were persons there who would not go away with the impression which prevailed sometimes elsewhere, that the difference between Popery and Protestantism was but a paper wall; but persons who would be prepared to give the reply of the gentleman to whom such an observation was made, "Ay, but upon that paper wall is written the whole word of God." VII. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION. THE Anniversary of this institution was held at Exeter-Hall, on Thursday, May 7th: Thomas Challis, Esq., in the chair. So numerous was the attendance, that it was found necessary to open the lower Hall, which soon became filled by those unable to gain admission above. The Speakers were, the Rev. Professor Vaughan; the Rev. Henry Townley; Henry Dunn, Esq., Secretary to the British and Foreign School Society; the Rev. John Burnett; ir Andrew Agnew, M. P.; the Rev. J. Williams; the Rev. J. E. Giles; and the Rev. Robert Baird. The Report stated, that the accounts from the West Indies were very encouraging. The negroes manifested the strongest desire for books. In reference to home proceedings, it stated that the Jubilee Fund was quite exhausted, but pressing applications continued to be made. The Committee regretted that their appeal on behalf of the Sunday-School Building Fund had not excited more general attention. A beginning, however, had been made. During the past year Mr. Wilson, the travelling agent, had itinerated through a great part of nine counties; had visited eleven existing Sundayschool Unions; had formed four new Societies; and held the usual Meetings at seven considerable towns which had not as yet established Unions. There were now in connexion with the Union about a million and a half of Sunday scholars. The sale of publications at the depository during the past year had amounted to £7,621. Os. 7d.; being an increase of £178. 14s. 3d. beyond the preceding year. Mr. DUNN said, he remembered a statement made at the Christian Instruction Society; namely, that there were now under sentence of death in Newgate four boys who had been trained up in Sunday-schools. He did not state that fact to chill their feelings, but he thought they ought to be acquainted with it. He should, however, like to know a little more upon the subject; perhaps they went into the school at one door and out at the other; at all events he would en gage that they were well known for a dience to parents, and the Teacher impressed the subject on the minds of all the children. No notice was taken of it at the time; but the boy went home, and the first thing he did was to fall down before his mother, conscience-stricken, and confess to her his guilt, and promise never to disobey her more. The poor woman was quite overcome; the boy explained to her what the Teacher had been telling him; she went to the Teacher suffused in tears, and blessed the day when the boy entered the school. That ignorance must be deep indeed which could altogether quench in its own darkness the light which shined even in the bosom of a child, and which was emphatically termed "the candle of the Lord." The Rev. J. WILLIAMS, from the South Sea Islands, said he felt very much interested in Sunday-schools for various reasons. He esteemed them for their own intrinsic value, and for the advantages which he had personally enjoyed from them. It was an important feature connected with them, that almost all our Missionaries had either been trained up in them, or had come from Sundayschool Teachers. He was glad to hear that there were two thousand Sundayschool Teachers then present, because he had come from the antipodes to procure ten Missionaries; and out of so large an assembly of Sunday.school teachers, surely some could be found who would come forward and offer themselves to the London Missionary or some other Missionary Society. He could furnish them with large congregations as soon as they arrived at their destination. The Meeting would naturally expect some account of the Sunday-schools in the islands where he had been labouring. There was a Sunday-school in connexion with every Missionary association; some of which afforded the Missionaries the highest satisfaction. He would furnish a brief account of the mode in which the schools were conducted. The children were assembled in the school-house on the Sabbath morning, from thence they were taken to the chapel. and on their return they were examined as to what they had heard. The children wrote the sermon on slates, and frequently the Missionary had from two hundred to three hundred slates to examine. The children had frequently got the whole of the sermon amongst them, and by that means VIII. RELIGIOUS THE Thirty-sixth Anniversary of this Society was held at the City of London they were put in possession of a vast deal of scriptural knowledge. Before he came to England, a public examination of the children took place, at which there were present seventy Teachers, having six hundred scholars under their charge. It was to be a grand festival, and the parents had dressed the children in their best clothes. They were assembled together, and paraded the settlement, a number of them carrying banners, bearing Scripture and other mottoes. They then went to the school-house, sang a hymn, a chapter was read, and the Missionary asked several questions, to which the most satisfactory answers were given. The parents, and several other persons, were present; and among them many mothers, absorbed in grief at the recollection of having destroyed their children, infanticide having formerly been practised to an unparalleled degree. Many of them regretted that they had not known that such days awaited them, for then they would have had their children present to sing the praises of God. The history of one Sunday-school Teacher was particularly interesting. She was spared from destruction in a most singular manner. The mother was of a superior family to the father; and when her two first children were born, the mother and the relatives insisted upon their being destroyed. A third child was born, and the mother determined that that also should be destroyed; but the father, yearning over his offspring, took the child twenty miles, and left it with his brother and sister. On his return his wife inquired what he had done with it: he told her he had destroyed it, and no more was thought about it. About twelve years had elapsed, and the father and mother were both present at the Meeting to which he had referred. The mother expressed a strong wish that her children were alive to join with the others in their devotion; and the father then told her that one had been preserved. She instantly demanded that a canoe should be procured, and the child fetched. She went to meet them on their return, and to her surprise saw a fine girl, eleven or twelve years of age, the very image of herself. Nothing could surpass the ecstasy with which she embraced her. That child was now the most active Teacher in the school, and a member of the church. TRACT SOCIETY. Tavern, on Tuesday morning, May 12th: J. P. Plumptre, Esq., M. P., in the chair. The Speakers were, the Rev. F. Cunningham; the Rev. Dr. Matheson, of Durham; the Rev. Dr. Spring, from America; the Rev. J. Williams; the Rev. Daniel Wilson; the Rev. John Leifchild; the Rev. George Clayton ; and the Rev. E. H. Nolan, from Ireland. The Report detailed the Society's operations through the past year, and showed that its benefits are extended to almost every part of the civilized world. The following is a summary of the home proceedings :-The grants to the Orkney Islands have been 15,400 publications. About 3,770 have been sent to the Shetlands, and 4,650 for circulation in Scotland. The Committee have sent to Ireland, during the year, 326,570 publications for gratuitous circulation. The following grants have also been made-For British emigrants, 60,000 tracts. For circulation on the Sabbathday, upwards of 200,000. For soldiers and sailors, 60,000. For foreigners in England, 22,000. For London and its vicinity, including 125,000 voted to the Christian Instruction Society, upwards of 325,800 tracts and hand-bills. Miscellaneous grants for different parts of England, 329,000. For the coast-guard stations, £150 in the Society's publications have been granted, in aid of a fund for furnishing the 500 stations connected with the service with circulating libraries. The Sub-Committee have granted sixty libraries at very reduced prices. The new publications amount to 181. Several new Auxiliaries have been formed. The publications circulated during the year amount to sixteen millions, two hundred and forty-one thousand, three hundred and forty-five; being an increase of two millions, two hundred and sixtynine thousand, one hundred and fortyeight; without including the numerous tracts which have been printed in foreign countries, at the expense of the Society. The total circulation of the Society's publications, at home and abroad, in about eighty different languages, exceeds two hundred and fifteen millions. The total benevolent income for the year is, £4,966. 2s. 11d.; being an increase of £342. 15s. 11d. The gratuitous issues, without any charge for agency, amount to £5,926. 5s. 4d.; being £960. 2s. 5d. beyond the amount received from the public. The sums received for the sales of the Society's publications during the past year amount to the sum of £50,448. 14s. 2d.; being an increase beyond the preceding year of £8,251, 1s. 8d. The total amount of the Society's receipts for the year is £56,370. 5s. 7d.; being an increase of £8,070. 17s. 3d. One Mr. WILLIAMS said, that portions of the Scriptures had been given to the natives of the South Sea Islands; and one great object of his coming to this country was to obtain for them larger portions of those Scriptures. While he had been in this country, he had employed himself in translating five different tracts; and rejoiced to be able to state, that in a short time, no fewer than 10,000 copies of those translations would go abroad on their messages of love. One was the History of Joseph. He had also, that morning, corrected the last sheet of the Gospel of Mark, which the Bible Society had kindly undertaken to print. feature in the operations of the Society abroad, especially, gave it a most interesting character; namely, that it was for the benefit of children; and he must observe that many of those children would have been destroyed by their parents, but for such exertions. He and his Missionary brethren, when employed in examining five or six hundred children belonging to their Sunday-schools, had been struck with the truth that, had it not been for their operations, and the blessing of God upon them, the greater portion of those children would have been deprived of their existence as soon as they were born. He had never conversed with a mother who had not, before the introduction of Christianity, destroyed from two to ten children. When the islands were visited by the deputation from the London Missionary Society, Messrs. Tyerman and Bennett, there were in company with them three females. The subject of infanticide was introduced; and it was asked if we could conjecture to what extent it had prevailed. said that the extent was astonishing; but that they had better refer to the females present. They thought it utterly impossible that such motherly-looking females, such excellent women, could ever have been guilty of such atrocities; for, as a Missionary of some standing, he could testify that Christianity had an influence to change the very countenance; to exchange the wild glare, the ferocious look of the savage, for the mild, florid, beaming joy of the true Christian. However, the females were appealed to; and it came out that one of them had destroyed nine of her children-another seven-and the other five! Thus among them twentyone children had been destroyed! There were, he observed, several of the Society We of Friends present; and he wished most particularly to impress this thought upon their minds. He could not account for the circumstance that the Friends did not come forward readily in aid of Missionary exertions. They were most decidedly friends of humanity; and surely the Missionary cause was the cause of humanity! They were the friends of education; and the great object of such Societies was to promote education in the most extensive sense. He trusted they would carefully consider those objects; and if they did, they would surely come forward with all their influence to support such institutions. IX. NAVAL AND MILITARY BIBLE SOCIETY. THE Fifty-fifth Anniversary of this Society was held at Freemasons' Hall, on Tuesday, May 12th: the Marquis of Cholmondeley in the chair. The Speakers were, Admiral Sir J. Brenton; Major-General Tolley; the Hon. Captain F. Maude; the Rev. H. Beamish; Lord Mountsandford; the Hon. Captain W. Wellesley, R. N.; the Hon. and Rev. Baptist W. Noel; Captain Layard; Colonel Broughton; Captain F. Gambier, R. N.; Captain G. Hope, R. N.; and the Rev. Neville Jones. The Report stated that during the past. year 2,726 Bibles and Testaments had been sent to different corps in His Majesty's army, and that numerous applications were instantly expected; 863 copies had been furnished to European troops in the Hon. East India Company's service in Bombay; and it was expected that the troops in Madras would shortly have a similar boon. Another regiment in India had been liberally furnished; and many of those who had received them, including several Roman Catholics, had entered into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Many barrackrooms, guard-rooms, store-rooms, and depots had also been supplied; and in the hours of relaxation the men had employed themselves in reading them, to their great profit. Several military schools, asylums, and hospitals also, had been supplied. Many grants had been made to the navy and seamen also. At Portsmouth, one officer had supplied ten ships with 1809 copies of the Scriptures, and 70 Bibles and 127 Testaments had been furnished for the marine schools. Another agent had supplied twenty-one ships with 306 Bibles and Testaments within the space of a few months, beside 259 to merchant seamen. At Plymouth ten of His Majesty's ships had been supplied with 559 Bibles and Testaments, and three other vessels had been presented with 108 copies. Some of the agents had sent letters, in which they spoke with gratitude of the grants which they had received, and testified from their own knowledge of the spiritual good which had by those means been communicated. The sailors in merchant vessels, boatmen, bargemen, and canal-men in the inland navigation, had not been overlooked; 7,307 Bibles and Testaments had been distributed among them, chiefly at the Society's reduced prices. Supplies had also been furnished to schools for the children of seamen and boatmen; and the increasing desire among such persons to peruse the sacred volume afforded a striking contrast to the apathy which was formerly manifested. 12,958 copies of the Scriptures were circulated during the past year; making a total of 297,038 since the formation of the institution. The travelling agent of the Society had been instrumental in forming some new Auxiliaries in the west of England, Exeter, Teignmouth, Dartmouth, &c.; he had also visited with some success Barnstaple, Appledone, Ilfracomb, Guernsey, Jersey, &c. In those and other places the claims of the Society had been fully acknowledged, and a willingness expressed to assist in its objects. Several donations had been presented to the Society. The total income of the Society, including sales, was 12,991. 9s. 8d.; the expenditure, £2,978. 10s. Mr. BEAMISH stated that, some time before he left his parish in Ireland, a vessel left the port of Kinsale, bound for St. John's, New-Brunswick. It was commanded by a Welshman, Captain Griffiths; and the crew had many of them wives and children, whom they left behind, af ter taking a very affectionate farewell. The vessel was expected to come back at a certain period laden with timber. When the time arrived the greatest anxiety was manifested. The highest hills were mounted; the telescope was lifted up to many an eye again and again. But months rolled away, and no tidings were heard of the Elizabeth. wives put on widows' weeds, the children were clad in mourning; subscriptions for their relief were entered into at the court-house; and all was sorrow and lamentation. But He who holds the winds in his fist, and takes up the waters in the hollow of his hands, was working in a mysterious way. After all hope had The weeping |